Keeping women in sport : positive experiences of six women's experiences growing up and staying with sport in Portugal

Abstract

In addition to playing an important role in combating lifestyle diseases such as obesity, participation in youth sport provides opportunities to develop skills and competencies in sport and in life-long social, moral, and personal development (Light, 2008; Georgakis & Russell, 2011). In countries that have well-developed clubs, youth sports systems such as those in Australia, the UK, Canada, Germany, and Portugal attract children and young people to sports and keep them participating. It presents a challenge for government bodies with youths (particularly females) beginning to drop out of sports at the age of 13. Patterns of sport participation are different between boys and girls with the rate of female participation significantly lower than their male peers. While attention has been paid to dropout and burnout (Fraser-Thomas, Côté, & Deakin, 2008), less attention has been paid to the reasons why girls continue involvement in sport. This study redresses this oversight in the literature by evoking the trajectories of young female athletes in sport from their first steps in sport up to their present situation as adult, competitive players. The study focuses on the experiences of six female athletes aged between 20 and 22 who participate in basketball, volleyball, and judo. Keywords: